The country star's label Big Machine Records explained: "We're not putting the brand-new releases on Spotify.

"Why shouldn't we learn from the movie business? They have theatrical releases, cable releases. There are certain tiers. If we just throw out everything we have, we're done."

However, Sachin Doshi, Spotify's head of development and analysis, countered Big Machine Records's claim using Mumford & Sons' latest album Babel as an example of how streaming services don't affect physical and digital album sales.

The band's latest set was streamed over 8 million times during its first week on Spotify, but still managed to sell over 600,000 copies in the US and a further 159,000 in the UK during the same time.

"That goes to prove streaming services do not take away from unit sales and, in fact, can be additive for major artist releases," he told Rolling Stone. "That's our point and we're sticking to it."